Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Head of religious prisons charity

convicted of stealing funds

The director of a religious organisation, which was allowed by the Prison Service to take over entire jail wings, faces being sent to prison himself after being convicted of stealing from the charity.

The director of a religious organisation, which was allowed by the Prison Service to take over entire jail wings, faces being sent to prison himself after being convicted of stealing from the charity.

Kenner Jones was convicted yesterday at Dorchester Crown Court of the theft of £2,536 from the Kairos-Apac charitable trust, an organisation dedicated to the rehabilitation of inmates.

The charity, based on religious teachings developed in Brazil, had expanded into five jails. But the man in chargehad served three jail terms in Britain and been locked up in Canada and the United States. His history of fraud and deception began in 1973 and inclu-ded more than 70 convictions.

Last night, Lord Avebury said he had written to Home Office ministers demanding a full inquiry into how Jones and the trust - which was paid more than £110,000 in public funds - had been allowed to operate. "I think that the Prison Service has a lot to answer for and the comptroller and auditor general should take a particular interest in the expenditure that was incurred without any contractual relationship," he said.

Yesterday, the case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports and Jones was given bail.

Jones'svictims have included the barrister and former Liberal Democrat MP Alex Carlile, a Canadian television presenter who Jones married before plundering her bank account and elderly women in a church congregation in Surrey.

Concerns about Kenner Jones were first raised by Ursula Smartt, an academic at Thames Valley University who was commissioned by Alan Walker, a member of the Prison Service board, to do research on the Kairos-Apac project in 1998. Her report warned of a lack of financial controls for a charitable trust fund worth £300,000.

But when The Independent revealed details of the report in January last year, Lord Williams of Mostyn, then the prisons minister, mounted a damage-limitation exercise, claiming that Jones had no access to finances. Weeks later, after further inquiries by Kairos-Apac trustees, Jones was dismissed from the organisation amid widespread allegations of mismanagement and Dorset Police launched an investigation.

Concern about Kairos-Apac continued. In last year's annual report, the board of visitors at Brixton jail, south London, said the trust had submitted invoices for £51,000, yet "not one single prisoner had been processed" in nine months. It said £27,360 had been paid although government accounting procedures had not been followed.

It warned the Prisons minister, Paul Boateng, of concern "that [Kairos-APAC] still operates in a few other prisons including Highpoint, the Verne and Swaleside".

The Charity Commissioners began an inquiry last spring. The trustees closed the charity last July, but a new trust, named Kainos, was set up with new trustees, including Mr Walker - who is now retired from the Prison Service and works as a private consultant. Kainos currently operates in four prisons.

The Prison Service said an independent inquiry was under way into the effectiveness of the existing Kainos units. "We firmly believe that Kainos has learnt the lessons from its predecessor," a spokesman said.

“Start Quote

Most of the time he surrounded himself with truly trained medical personnel - nurses, doctors, who did his work for him - so I think he was clever”

David MahoneyCatholic brother in Africa

This time, Taro Naw reveals he has been posing as a doctor in Africa for the last seven years, without any medical qualifications.

Jones has also been running his own charity, Luke's Fund, in Kenya since 2003.

BBC Wales journalist Marc Edwards travelled to Africa, and to the Netherlands, to confront Mr Jones - whose full name is Kenner Elias Jones - about his life.

Edwards said: "In 2003, once again facing fraud charges in Britain, Ken Jones fled to Kenya in east Africa.

"Claiming to be a priest, he found shelter in a Christian community where he even conducted church services."

He also set up a charity Luke's Fund, and the programme found he conned a prominent Spanish medical foundation that was in Africa, helping the sick and needy.

"He tricked several individuals and took their money. Worst of all he pretended to be an experienced doctor and took children into his care," said Edwards.

Catholic brother David Mahoney was one of the people he deceived.

'Devastated'

''Most of the time he surrounded himself with truly trained medical personnel - nurses, doctors, who did his work for him - so I think he was clever," Brother Mahoney said.

"[He was] not going too far and staying out of trouble.

"Many people do good here... he got talented people to volunteer their time and didn't pay them for doing it... he did a lot of damage,'' he added.

Arie Taal, who lives in Amsterdam, said Mr Jones deceived his sister Jesje Taal, who gave him thousands of euros at the end of 2009.

"I feel that this man has betrayed many people who trusted him... the psychological effect of being taken for a ride can be devastating," said Mr Taal.

"We think people should be warned about Ken Jones - you should not believe everything you hear and not from a slick talker like Ken Jones," he added.

When the programme confronts him in a Belgian street Mr Jones tells Edwards, in Welsh: "I'm not running away. I have told you to come to Africa to see for yourselves what has been happening - you are the ones running away from the truth."